Divine Gabardines
Each of our sewing patterns comes with a fabric recommendation so that no mistakes are made when sewing your garment. At Maison Fauve, It is important to me to offer you a wide enough choice of fabrics to enable you to sew all our patterns. And there’s one fabric we’ve been lacking until now, and we are bringing in the most eye catching one into the Maison Fauve fabric library: gabardine.
Gabardine by Maison Fauve
I didn’t want it to be too heavy, to ensure numerous types of garments could be sewn. I was also very keen for it to be 100% cotton, of a very high quality, and I spent a long time exploring the different materials offered by the manufacturers we work with before finding THE gabardine. It’s made in Portugal, in workshops that we know well because they also print our beautiful viscose poplins.
I also request dye tests to be carried out, to make sure that the colours on this fabric would be colourfast (i.e. the ability of the fabric to retain its colour, especially when washed). This was the most important factor for the Fauve Romance collection, we have quite specific colours, such as Sulphur Yellow, which require impeccable results (I didn’t want my beautiful neon yellow to fade).
Our new gabardine has a tight twill weave, with its characteristic thin diagonals, and above all it is extremely soft, with a slight velvety feel.
Sulphur Yellow cotton gabardine
How do I sew gabardine?
Cotton gabardine is a stable fabric that is very easy to sew. As our fabric has no elastane, there is a minimal risk of stretching it when transferring the pattern to the fabric and during the sewing stages. It doesn’t slip, and the fact that it’s not too thick means that your machine won’t have too much trouble pulling it along or sewing through the layers, for example when sewing a jacket collar or a denim waistband.
I recommend that you use the following for this type of fabric:
- 80 gage universal needles
- Pins with a rounded head to avoid pricking yourself when pinning this fairly dense material.
- An iron-on fusible interfacing such as Vlieseline G700 to add some hold to your work, particularly on collars, cuffs, belts and the bottom of jackets
- Poppy buttons with their pretty arabesque design
- Wink Mat buttons with their satin surface and gold centre
- Jazz horn-style buttons for very casual creations
- Bijoux buttons in light gold, very elegant
And for jackets like the Pilar jacket or the Hussard jeans, check out our range of Maison Fauve denim buttons.
How do I finish my seams?
Gabardine is a fabric that doesn’t fray much. However, to finish your seams neatly, I recommend either overlocking your seam allowances or edging your pieces with a double-sided bias, as explained in the free video tutorial “sewing a jacket without a lining”. If you’re sewing a lined jacket like the Mimosa blazer, these precautions won’t be necessary, as the lining will be enough to protect the seam allowances from rubbing.
How do I care for my gabardine garments?
We recommend that you wash your fabric at 30° on a delicate cycle. I would refrain from using a tumble dryer. Once your fabric or garment has been washed, smooth it out when you take it out of the machine and then dry flat or on a hanger to avoid creases.
Iron on a medium setting.
Choosing the right fabric
What patterns should I sew in gabardine? I really wanted our fabric to allow you to sew many different types of garments! You can sew in Maison Fauve gabardine:
- Jackets and outerwear such as the Pilar jacket, the Mimosa jacket and the Métropolis jacket
- Trench coats and overcoats like the Pam or the free Tigris coat pattern (you can download the PDF extension here)
- Trousers like the Hussard trousers (they’ll be gorgeous), shorts like the Grand Bain shorts, but also playsuits and dresses like the Cosmopolitan pattern.
As I said, our beautiful gabardine will enable you to create some very pretty garments. And we are planning to add new Maison Fauve colours to our gabardine range very soon!
